Media Diary: Ray Hadley guns for ‘worst ever PM’ Anthony Albanese
The Albanese government’s backing of a UN proposal to recognise ‘permanent sovereignty’ of Palestinians appeared to be the final straw for Sydney radio legend Ray Hadley, who unleashed a withering assessment of our 31st prime minister.
One day after losing his crown as Sydney’s most popular morning show, Ray Hadley was wound up like a coiled spring on Friday, and he didn’t hold back, rating Anthony Albanese the worst Australian PM since the dawn of Federation.
Happy Friday, Albo!
Discussing the Albanese government’s support for a UN proposal to recognise “permanent sovereignty” of Palestinians, Hadley ripped in: “They’ve done it for one simple reason – they are scared shitless they’re going to be berated by the Muslim vote in Tony Burke and “Casanova” Chris Bowen’s seat.
“That’s the only reason they’ve done it, because who’s applauding them? The Jewish faith are condemning them, as they should, but oh, the Palestinians are jumping up and down! Standing ovation for Penny Wong and Anthony Albanese! A brave, robust move!”
It’s all BS. They’ve done it for one reason and one reason only – to try and save their political skins.
“Anthony Albanese, I didn’t think you’d be as low as a snake’s belly, but I think you’re pretty low at the moment, and Penny Wong’s right behind you.
“Anthony Albanese – I thought he might make a go of it.
“But it’s more important to appease a minority of people and get re-elected than it is to do the right thing.
“I’ve known him for more than 30 years – knockabout bloke, following the Rabbitohs, I see him at rugby league matches … he is the worst prime minister we’ve ever had.
“The worst. Throw all of them in: Malcolm Fraser, Gough Whitlam, go through the list, whoever you like. He (Albanese) is the worst prime minister we’ve ever had by the length of the straight.”
Diary thinks it’s unlikely that Albo will dial in to wish Hadley all the best when he presents his final show on December 13.
When it comes to shout-outs, Trent can’t find a better man
Aside from being a world-renowned author, award-winning journalist and rugby league tragic, Trent Dalton is also a passionate rock dog, with a particular penchant for legendary grunge group Pearl Jam.
So imagine Dalton’s state of ecstasy last week when he learned that Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder had issued a shout out at the band’s Gold Coast gig to “two bad ass teenage fellas that I’ve just become a big fan of. This one goes out to Eli and Gus, the Bell brothers.”
The Bell brothers are, of course, Dalton’s creations, brought to life in his best-selling novel Boy Swallows Universe, which subsequently became a worldwide Netflix smash hit.
We don’t know if Vedder read Dalton’s book or watched the Netflix series but it matters not to our man Trent.
We’re reliably informed that news of Vedder’s homage to Eli and Gus Bell – characters based on Trent and his older brother – sent him into the stratosphere.
Dalton wasn’t at the Gold Coast gig, but word of Vedder’s serenade soon reached the author, courtesy of his friend Naomi, who was at the concert and filmed the moment.
It wasn’t long before Dalton took to Instagram to self combust.
Dalton recalled how, as an impoverished teenager in 1995, he took to flogging sub-par mangoes by the side of a Brisbane road in order to secure enough money for the ticket to see Pearl Jam during their Australian tour of that year.
We’ll let Dalton tell the rest of the story, as only he can.
“When I was 14 years old I sold mangoes on the side of Rouen Road, Bardon to make $36 to buy a ticket to my first Pearl Jam show. I had a sign saying: ‘Need $36 to see Pearl Jam’,” he wrote.
“The mangoes were green and rock hard and inedible. No sales for two hours in baking Brisbane summer sun. Then a man in a black BMW stopped and handed me $40. ‘Keep the mangoes,’ he said. ‘Enjoy the show.’
“When I was 23, I pretended to be a roadie to sneak backstage of The Arena at a Brad show, just to meet (Pearl Jam guitarist) Stone Gossard.
“When I was 38, I thanked Eddie Vedder in the end pages of my first book, Boy Swallows Universe. What a f..king chancer I was. As if that yarn would ever possibly cross his radar! “Maybe the best friend I ever had in high school in Bracken Ridge was a sweet and thoughtful man from Seattle-via-Chicago trapped inside my Teac tape deck singing about teenage confusion and anger and hope and trauma and abortion rights and First Nations rights and gun control and violence against women.
“That sweet and thoughtful man – and the music he makes with his beautiful mates – is somewhere in every line of Boy Swallows Universe. That’s why I had to thank him in the book’s end pages.
“My wife and two daughters are now as devoted to the band as I am. We had fan club tickets for the whole family to attend the Gold Coast night one of the Pearl Jam tour this past Wednesday.
“First PJ show for my daughters. Then we found out my daughter’s high school valedictory dinner was on that very night. Moments after my daughter received her graduation certificate on stage, a beautiful mate sent a text: ‘Eddie just dedicated a song to Eli and Gus Bell!’
“I will never recover. What a small and beautiful universe it is.
“F..k it, be a chancer! Be a dreamer! Be ALIVE!!!!”
Diary gets the sense that Dalton was quietly pleased with Eddie’s 24-word tribute.
Gawenda’s sorrow
Jewish journalist and author Michael Gawenda, the former editor of The Age from 1997-2004, says his former masthead will no longer publish his work.
Speaking at the Kristallnacht commemoration hosted by the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies in Sydney earlier this month, Gawenda expressed his horror at what he said was the growing hostility from the left towards Israel and Jews.
“Most of my career in journalism was at The Age,” Gawenda said in conversation with journalist Carly Adno.
“I can’t get published in The Age or in The Sydney Morning Herald, I now get published in The Australian.”
Gawenda said it was unlikely that The Age would ever appoint an editor “like me again – an editor who supports the State of Israel”.
“I think journalism has gone away from the basic principles that I thought journalism was about, that I think I lived by as a journalist when I was a writing journalist, and that I lived by when I was editing newspapers – that is, the role of journalists is to be as accurate and fair and open-minded and un-agenda driven as they possibly can be in describing what is going on in the world for their readers and viewers,” the 77-year-old said.
“It’s not hard to try to overcome whatever prejudices you’ve got to report fairly. I think all of that in the main has been thrown out of the window by most journalists.”
Guardian dumps X
Last week, the Guardian announced that it was no longer going to share its work on social media platform X.
Apparently, the far left masthead has been thinking about leaving X “for a while”.
Diary is going to stick out its neck and speculate that the Guardian had been mulling over the move for exactly eight days – the amount of time that passed between Donald Trump winning the US presidential election, and the sorrowful note of departure issued by the Guardian on November 13.
“We think that the benefits of being on X are now outweighed by the negatives and that resources could be better used promoting our content elsewhere,” said the unsigned message, posted on the Guardian’s website.
“This is something we have been considering for a while given the often disturbing content promoted or found on the platform.
“The US presidential election campaign served only to underline what we have considered for a long time: that X is a toxic media platform and that its owner, Elon Musk, has been able to use its influence to shape political discourse.”
Translation: Trump is not our guy, and because Musk is friendly with Trump, then Musk’s social platform sucks.
But fear not, Guardian readers, if you persist with X, you’ll still be able to share the masthead’s articles.
“And the nature of live news reporting means we will still occasionally embed content from X within our article pages,” the Guardian reassured.
So, it’s a kind-of-not-really departure from the platform.
Aside from the embarrassingly obvious reason for the Guardian’s X dump, the idea that the masthead’s editorial chiefs have only just realised that the Musk-owned social media platform is frequently poisonous is laughable.
Try as it might to dress up its faux-virtuous decision to leave X as a carefully considered exit, the Guardian has exposed itself with its giant post-election dummy spit.
In Diary’s humble opinion, the masthead’s readers are probably better off without X, but if it’s impartial news coverage and commentary they are seeking, they’re unlikely to find it on the Guardian, either.
Trump travel
But the Guardian is not alone in its naked disgust at the result of the US election.
According to The Sydney Morning Herald, the rebirth of Donald Trump has rendered the US unfit for tourists.
Last week, the Nine-owned tabloid ran a piece by its travel writer Ben Groundwater, who stated Trump’s policies on tariffs would make the US too expensive to visit.
“In the long term, these tariffs are likely to strengthen the US dollar, which means a country that is already cripplingly expensive for many international travellers, including Australians, is going to become a whole lot pricier,” he wrote.
Maybe, maybe not. But as any economist will tell you, currency fluctuations depend on may factors, pretty much all of which are impossible to predict four years in advance.
But please, Professor Groundwater, push on!
“Another of Trump’s stated policies is a reduction of firearms restrictions, which will seem absolutely wild to most people outside the country. There’s a plan for concealed carry reciprocity, which means if you can carry a concealed weapon in your home state, you will be able to do so anywhere in the US,” he wrote ominously.
“For potential visitors already concerned about the US’s rampant gun violence, that’s going to be another red flag.”
What?!
So Ben, you’re telling me that if the tariffs don’t kill me, a gun-wielding stranger is more than likely to finish me off?
But hang on, reader, it gets worse.
“And then there’s the Republicans’ ‘America First’ policy agenda, including mass deportations of migrants, which doesn’t sound too friendly to incoming visitors.”
It’s true, if you don’t have a valid passport, international travel can be tough.
Groundwater concluded his US fearmongering thus: “Trump is hugely unpopular among women. And who do you think makes the decisions on spending and travel in Australian homes? According to a recent survey commissioned by Wise, it’s women: 70 per cent of travel decisions and payments are made by women.”
Sheesh. Between the tariffs, and the bullets, and the deportations, and pesky Australian wives, the verdict is clear: the US is a no-go zone for the next four years.
And to think, Diary just clicked on the article to learn whether it’s nice in New York this time of year!
Maddern’s star rises
Veteran sports journalist Rebecca Maddern has been appointed chief sports presenter at Channel 7, following the retirement of former AFL champion Tim Watson.
Maddern, who is a former host of Channel 9’s AFL Footy Show, will present the 6pm weeknight sports bulletin in Victoria, but an expanded role will see her involved in Seven’s AFL coverage, as well as other major sporting broadcasts.
In a statement on Sunday, Maddern said: “Sport is the fabric of Melbourne, it’s the unifying thread of the city. Coffee and sport make this town tick and luckily, I’m addicted to both.”
Maddern is currently co-presenter of Seven’s weekend 4pm bulletins in Melbourne, alongside Mike Amor.
It’s likely that Seven’s recent recruit Karina Carvalho, will replace the weekend vacancy opened up by Maddern’s move, with murmurs that Carvalho has been earmarked for higher duties at the network in the near future.
Earlier this year, Carvalho moved to Seven from the ABC, after a 17-career at the national broadcaster.
Morrison declares
James Morrison, this masthead’s legendary World Editor, has left the building after almost 42 years with The Australian.
The Shakespeare Hotel, one of Morrison’s many beloved watering holes in inner Sydney, was overflowing on Saturday as well over 100 colleagues, past and present, attended his farewell.
Morrison was one of those journalists who was more than just a noisy presence in the newsroom (although, of course, he was that as well). He was generous, humble, funny, irreverent, supportive, and bloody good at his job. The industry is poorer for his departure, but he’s earned a rest.
Go well, Jam Pot.
Nick Tabakoff is on leave
Canberra condemns Beijing as Jimmy Lai faces HK court
Labor, the Coalition and Greens show rare cross-party solidarity as the most high-profile figure in Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement takes the stand in his fifth national security trial.
Amid Jones’ soul-searching, one name keeps surfacing
Tech guru and former Jones protege Alex Hartman died in Switzerland at the age of 39 not long after making allegations of indecent assault against the star broadcaster.